Hard-hitting heels

L-R from top: Nicholas Kirkwood, Henry Holland, Topshop, Charlotte Olympia, Carvela, Carvela, Carvela, River Island, Topshop, Topshop Unique, Alexander Wang, Balmain, Burberry Prorsum, Carvela, Christian Louboutin, Topshop.

Being a grammar school geek-child, I used to look forward to the new school year with the same fervour and delight that I now reserve for the new season collections. Crisp notepads, pristine pencil cases and the smell of new books all represented the fresh new start of a year where I would get nothing but As, be super-popular and immaculately turned-out, albeit in a vomit-green polyester uniform.

The mandatory poly-blends have since disappeared but I still get that new-season sense of promise. And what better way to fulfill that than with a shiny new pair of shoes for your uniform? I've come a long way since Clarks Magic Key Shoes (although they were awesome), so my back-to-cool choice is some hard-hitting heels that will make sure I go straight to the top of the class.

Part punk princess, part urban dominatrix, this heavy-duty style will deliver new-season looks with a powerful punch. Whether sexing-up urban sportswear à la Alexander Wang, or going for all-out Balmainia with shredded denim and power shoulders, these tough-girl heels will lend their rebellious energy to everything. Which ones will you be buying?

The September Issue

The September Issue was always going to be great. Sorry to give it all away upfront, but it's true. My dear friend C took me to see a preview screening of it last week and I wholeheartedly recommend you all rush to see it when it's released on September 11th. I spent the first 20 minutes in star-struck awe at being allowed to peep behind those hallowed doors.

Actually, that's a lie.

I spent the first 20 minutes in horrified shock at just how wrinkly fashion editors get after the age of 50. You're immediately slapped hard in the face by the Vogue staff's haggard lines, hardened by years of free champagne, Marlboro Lights and unforgiving documentary lighting. It scared me, I have to admit. Perhaps I'm too vain for this youth-sapping industry of ours. It could, however, just be having Anna Wintour to contend with on a daily basis. No need to worry just yet, then.

Not quite as ice queen-esque as painted by Meryl Streep, but Wintour is certainly chilly. Less Devil Wears Prada, more Stickler Wears Quite Alot of Carolina Herrera. And stickler she is; noone can deny that she is more than deserving of her global reverence as the most powerful woman in fashion. As Candy Pratts Price (who sounds exactly like Lloyd Grossman, by the way) says in the intro; fashion is a religion, Vogue is the bible, ergo Anna is the Pope. The September Issue, therefore, was a fascinating insight into why and how what she says goes. Of course, at the time of filming the industry was at an extravagant all-time high, filled with fanciful flamboyancies and $50K expendable photo shoots, yet wobbling precariously on the precipice of financial implosion. Wintour throws out the most exquisite spreads, seemingly on a whim - poor Edward Enninful looks like he might have a meltdown at any moment. But one can only imagine that in these frugal times, any remnants of frivolity that Anna allowed in her staff are well and truly dispensed with. Frivolity is for pussies, after all. Even in the relative buoyancy of 2007, when editing Mario Testino's now notorious wig-employing, toothy Sienna Miller/Rome shoot, she utters over and over: 'But where are the clothes?' displaying her business savvy as so vastly superior to its creative counterpart.

If Anna Wintour is the business of Vogue, then Grace Coddington is the heart and soul. Emerging as the loveably eccentric star of the film, untamed red hair symbolic of her great imagination, Grace shows not only her vast talent but also her intense vulnerability after having spread after spread of hers spiked by Anna. Such a juxtaposition next to Anna's emotionless insensitivity makes it even harder to sympathise with her, even when she's portrayed as cutting a lonely figure, dwarfed in those iconic hallways after everyone else has left for the night. She might have the best job in the world, but she looks like she's having absolutely no fun doing it. Again, in stark contrast, the wonderfully larger-than-life Andre Leon-Talley swans around like some camp fashion maharajah, adorned in be-logoed muumuus and exclaiming 'famines of beauty'. He is the only one I can imagine not being crushed by a Medusa-like Wintour glare.

I suspect Anna Wintour very much enjoys her steely reputation and, to her credit, she didn't ham it up on camera. There were a number of protracted silences, a sprinkling of glazed, imperious expressions and more than her fair share of scathing sarcastic comments: 'Are you not feeling colour this season then, Stefano?' *Pilatti runs to get a navy jacket* Anna: 'Hmmm, very colourful." She also tells Oscar de la Renta not to include one of his looks on the runway, hurries Jean-Paul Gaultier to get on with his run-through (he looks genuinely panicked), tells one of her fashion editors that all her shoots look the same (ouch) and the way she says 'Excuse me' when someone gets in her way is enough to make you wet yourself on the spot. But one does not get to be a legend in every sense without busting some balls along the way.

Overall, it was a surprisingly, sometimes unintentionally funny film (although rumour has it that at the premier the audience were too scared to laugh infront of Nuclear Wintour) and watching it made me feel proud to be part of an industry where an extraordinary amount of hard graft meets incredible creativity. As I sat there with goosebumps, I couldn't imagine anyone not getting wrapped up in the infectious passion that comes from the staff, the colour and glossy imagination that comes to life on the pages and the obvious dynamism that the whole industry represents. I wish I could say that Wintour came through with some cherry-on-the-top-style rousing monologues, but she seemed so guarded and joyless that it made me wish R.J Cutler had asked her why she got into fashion in the first place.